Chairman warns budget proposal could dissolve some townships; calls it an unfunded mandate

Stephenson County Board Chairman Scott Helms reported out of Springfield and told the board on April 7 that two bills under consideration — incorporated in Governor J.B. Pritzker’s budget proposal as presented to the board — would dissolve townships in counties with populations under 50,000 and transfer township responsibilities to the county.

Helms said the change would be an unfunded mandate because the bills would not provide additional revenue to cover the added responsibilities, which include road maintenance, ditch mowing and snow plowing. He said Stephenson County has 18 townships; Freeport Township would be an exception because the City of Freeport would assume responsibility there.

Helms said he and other county representatives spoke with state legislators (he named Senator Chesney and House leader McCombie in the meeting remarks) and that those legislators were not in favor of dissolving the townships. He asked citizens and board members to contact their legislators if they oppose the proposal.

“However, this would be an unfunded mandate. There would not be any revenue available to the county to help maintain the miles and miles of roads and bridges,” Helms said. He asked the board to monitor the bills because if the budget in its current form passes, the provision would become effective even if separate bills failed in committee.

Ending: Helms congratulated Samuel Newton on election as vice president of the UCCI executive board and the board discussed outreach to state legislators; no formal county action to change township structure was taken at the meeting.